


bursting into life

by blackorchids



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: F/M, M/M, Tomlinshaw - Freeform, and turn it into some sort of chaptered mess of a thing, but i haven't worked on it in ages, highschool!au, love me, so i thought i'd just put the first bit up, something, this was going to be a long one-shot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 06:59:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/859216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackorchids/pseuds/blackorchids
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>nick's ten-and-three-quarters when he gets stuck with a wide-eyed, sniveling little boy named harry. his life hasn't quite been the same since.</p>
            </blockquote>





	bursting into life

**Author's Note:**

> um. please refer to tags for details on this story. i don't know where this is going, but we'll see.
> 
> EDIT: I've fixed the settings so that it now says that it's a multi-chapter story. Sorry about that.

Nick remembers his first ‘big brother’. He’s been going to an all-boys school for as long as he can remember, and it has been a tradition of the school’s since before he was born. The children in year six are paired up with the incoming ‘year zeroes,’ as his eldest sister calls them, and they are meant to act as a bit of a mentor for the kid for the next six years of their life.

Nick has actually been dreading this. He knows how small children work. They’re sniveling and sticky and generally disgusting. He’d adored his mentor, and he’s quite secure in the fact that he wasn’t a grimy little brat, but not everyone is as wonderful as him.

Nick sighs dramatically as he walks next to Henry and Finchy, who are both in his class this year.

“This is such rubbish,” Henry mumbles and Nick makes a noise of agreement, frowning at his teacher’s back after the man turns towards the front once more.

“I dunno,” Finchy says, smiling a bit and generally looking a bit twatty. “I’m a bit excited. There’s going to be a kid out there in the future that I helped mould the mind of.”

There’s a beat of silence in which Finchy colours and Henry delivers a well-aimed jab into his side. There’s another pause and Nick can see the kindergarten classroom at the end of the hall, bulletin board on the outside covered in colourful pasta-art.

“I’m still excited,” Finchy mutters at last and Nick rolls his eyes as Henry scoffs under his breath, but Nick knows that Finchy’d loved his ‘big brother’ the most because he hasn’t got any siblings of his own. Nick supposes it’d be nice to have a little brother to push around once in a while, but he can’t help but remember the handful of near-toddlers on the bus this morning, eyes full of unshed tears and wobbly lips as their mum’s pressed last-minute kisses to their foreheads.

Nick’s not really good with crying children.

“Alright,” Mr Nichols says, punctuating this with a loud clap as he usually did, “I want you lot on your absolute best behavior, you hear? Make a good impression on your buddy, because you’ll be stuck with him for the next six years.” Two more claps follow this rather ominous sentence and Nick tries not to be sick all over the floor. He wonders if he’d get out of this if he randomly lost the bones in his left arm.

"Alright," says Mr Nichols again and Nick wonders if that's how his professor plans on starting every sentence for the rest of the year. "Single file, go on."

And so, with Henry in front and Finchy behind, Nick is shuffled inside the bright room where there are a good twenty sets of eyes looking up from various positions.

After ten minutes in which Mr Nichols and Ms Brayson explain what’s going on, Nick’s class is left to disperse themselves into the group of tiny children while the two teachers sit at a desk and start up a conversation. Finchy is gone in a heart beat, and Henry is using his ridiculous height to look down upon everyone with a snide expression and Nick inches towards an empty-looking corner in the room where he can sit and be carefully hidden away from the teachers’ prying eyes. If he doesn’t find a buddy he’ll be assigned one, and, really, Nick thinks that’s the path he’s leaning towards.

Ten minutes pass and Nick smiles fondly at Finchy, who is surrounded by a handful of teeny children, all looking up at him with wide eyes as he tells them a story, complete with enthusiastic hand-gestures and different voices. Nick’s excited for his mate--the boy struggles through school, but this will be good for him.

Suddenly, the crate he’s hiding behind starts to shake and Nick freezes, pulling away from it and staring. It opens some six centimetres and a forehead and big green eyes poke out and Nick stares some more. A boy with floppy brown hair halfway across the room wobbles towards the crate gratefully, and Nick wonders what the hell is going on.

“Hazzy!” the boy says, “Was looking for you.”

“Get in, Nialler,” says the green-eyed boy, shifting so that the opening to the crate is wider. “Come on.”

The floppy-haired boy pushes his lip out in thought, his chubby cheeks stained red, his blue eyes blinking rapidly. He glances at Nick before throwing himself into the crate with a lot of thumping and a whine from green-eyes--Hazzy, Nick’s mind supplies, wondering exactly what kind of parent you’d have to be to name your child that.

Hazzy stares at Nick for an absurdly long amount of time, eyes wide and kind of unnerving, before he presses one little finger to his lips and lowers himself down, letting the lid of the crate click closed once more.

**Author's Note:**

> someone love me
> 
>  
> 
> come talk to me or prompt me on tumblr [@rosalinesbenvolio](http://www.rosalinesbenvolio.tumblr.com)!!


End file.
